It turns out that a real alien invasion is nothing like the Sci-fi shows 14-year-old Gracie loves. Not when it’s your own family who are swallowed whole by those big silver ships. Not if it could be you next.
In her search for her family, Gracie meets Brandon, a high school dropout who would never have been caught dead hanging out with a dork like Gracie before the world ended. Gracie isn’t too crazy about Brandon either, but he has one thing she doesn’t: A plan.
Brandon’s uncle has a cabin up in Maine, and If Gracie and Brandon can survive long enough to get there they can hide out until the Space Men pack up their ships and leave.
Until the army guys come to rescue them, says Brandon. Brandon is big into army guys. Gracie has to admit that Brandon’s Awesome Plan probably would have worked out great if wasn’t for Jake.
They found 5-year-old Jake, laying half-dead under the remains of someone’s ranch house. He’s a good kid, even if he won’t-or can’t- talk. But Jake has a secret, and when Gracie finds out what it is, the fragile new life they’ve started to forge looks set to break apart.
When the people you’ve been counting on to put the world back together start hunting you down, alien invaders are the least of your worries.
Untaken is a young adult science fiction written by J.E. Anckorn. It is being rereleased in March 23, 2015 through Curiousity Quills Press.
The book is written in three point of views with Brandon and Gracie being the most used. Through them, you experience the downfall of mankind and the horrors of who to trust and who not to. The children join forces and become a family unit of their own.
Anckorn writes a beautiful piece that I had to constantly put down. Not because I couldn’t get into it. Oh no, Untaken pulls you in all the way. I had to put it down because every time the kids were put into an emotional moment, I needed to pause. I felt like I was there, experiencing the alien invasion, the center, the drones . . . everything. It was disturbing and wonderful at the same time.
I love feeling an emotional attatchment to the characters and not many books have done that lately. I can probably think of two others that I have a clear attatchment to that I’ve read recently. It is the imagery and realisitic actions of her teens that make Anckorn’s work beautiful.
This book is science fiction. It has aliens in it. HOWEVER, you don’t really see much of the invasion. What you see is the human coniditon that happens after the invasion. How do you think the world would be after something like this? Peaceful? Doubt it. Anckorn’s setting is exactly what I would expect.
Even though I’m not a science fiction person all the time, there are a few books and authors I will read. Anckorn is one of them. Untaken is a beautiful and disturbing book that deals with three children in the aftermath of an alien abduction. It’s a must read for young adult and science fiction readers.
About The Author:
E. Anckorn has been an artist and writer ever since she began to surreptitiously doodle on school supplies instead of learning about practical things, like osmosis and mathematics.
After barely surviving a freak mathematical osmosis disaster, she set out to travel the world, living in New Zealand, Australia and Hong Kong before returning to her native Britain- just in time to marry an American and leave for the U.S.A.She still failed to learn anything about osmosis, but did manage to cultivate an accent that is unintelligible to almost everyone. (It happened through a mysterious net movement of information from the outside environment into her brain. If only there was a word for that!)
This led to her development of a new language, based almost entirely on polite yet uncomprehending nods.In between these adventures, she has worked as a toy designer, copywriter, and freelance illustrator.She lives in Boston, with a small grumpy dog, and a large, slightly less grumpy husband.
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/ultra_lilac
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8379204.J_E_Anckorn
Casia's Corner 